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Think of it as an itach but only with a single serial output. You would go directly from iRule to the "ethernet to serial converter" using TCPIP. The text you would send would be what you would have sent over the RS232 connection.

I just bought one of the ethernet to serial converters so I can play with it with my system. It is due in on Monday, so by Friday I should have it all figured out (If my ego does not get in the way, and I have some free time).

That's great! In this case, Barry, I will patiently wait until you report whether you get the whole contraption to work effectively and reliably!

I have no experience with ethernet-to-serial, but I tried ethernet-to-USB several times over the past 15 years, and things invariably ended with tears . Hence I am particularly grateful that you go in first!

I am flying over to the West Coast in late January. I will try to have the boards and stuff shipped to my hotel, thus avoiding the immense postal and customs charges levied for shipping to the Alpine Republic where I live. Often, the charges exceed the value of the equipment!

So I finally got my first iteration working. Very frustrating, but also very cool.

I have a few screens, and the integration with my Denon AVR3311c is impeccable.

However, I have had a horrid time with the iTach IP2IR. I have it attached to a Sharp Aquos 42" LCD, a Philips DVD, and a Directv satellite box. The iRule app sees the iTach, and I can assign devices, but I have yet to have a device respond to a code from the iphone.

Is there any way to debug thes connections? How do I know whether the codes are wrong versus a cable/connection issue? I can't see infrared so I don't know if transmission is happening.

Thanks in advance!

I would pull irule out of the equation all together. Use the global cache or barry's tools and send raw hex to the itach and see what happens. Ir placement can be frustrating. You may try using the blaster on port 3 if it's emitter placement issue. Check your gateways, it's timing out like Barry posted previously.

When playing with IR it is a very good idea to invest a few dollars to get an emiter that blinks light in the visible spectrum in addition to IR. It really helps debug silly things. The xantech 283D will do nicely.

I assume you are using an emitter to get the IR to the Aquos or is it a direct connection?

The other tricky part is to get the emitter properly placed over the IR receiver which is sometimes hard to see. I find that a bright flashlight will allow you to see the IR receiver in an easier fashion as it kills some of the opacity of modern case fronts

I've scanned through most of this thread but I found it difficult to find what I'm looking for. I'm curious how iRule handles discrete on/off and input codes. I have several questions.

1. Does iRule include discrete codes in their database? YES, DEPENDING ON THE DEVICE. THEIR DATABASE IS PRETTY BIG AND GET REGULARLY UPDATED.

2. is the iRule database the only place to get codes? NO, YOU CAN ADD THEM INDIVIDUALLY: IR, RS232 OR IP

3. Is there any way to modify codes? ONLY THE ONES YOU ADDED UNDER 2.

4. If the codes for a component aren't available from iRule, is there a way to learn them from the original remote? YES, WITH A IR LEARNER. E.G. THE ITACH COMES WITH A IR LEANER, BUT ANY OTHER CODE LEARNER SHOULD WORK, TOO.

iRule looks promising but there are certain aspects of the program that I pretty much need it to do. I'm using a TSU7000 at the moment and I'm hoping that the iPad/iRule are as customizable.

I am flying over to the West Coast in late January. I will try to have the boards and stuff shipped to my hotel, thus avoiding the immense postal and customs charges levied for shipping to the Alpine Republic where I live. Often, the charges exceed the value of the equipment!

Oh. Scratch the Smarthome (Insteon) idea. While they have 240 volt modules (with American plugs and sockets) the products are not designed to work on 50 Hz AC circuits.

I followed the two tutorials on MCE and WOL. I first I installed the MCE to my Win 7 machine and modified the HTPC panel to use the device. I tested it with a running HTPC and made sure I could send commands like Green Button and cursor etc. All worked fine.

I then used the WOL tutorial and configured that. With the HTPC off I was able to go to the HTPC panel and the WOL feature fired up the HTPC. The iRule stated it was 'connecting to gateways' and stayed that way for about 45 seconds. Then it responded with a 'Failed to connect to gateways!' message.

I disabled the WOL setting thinking there may be some issue there and tried to use the panel again with the turned on HTPC but now I cannot connect to the HTPC gateway at all. I verified that MCE Controller was active and I saw my former commands that I used before configuring the WOL feature.

So how do I make the WOL feature work with the MCE controller? And how do I get my HTPC gateway working again?

WOL is an attribute of the network interface card, the Motherboard and the OS. It has nothing to do with any application. You need to properly configure your NIC, make any settings that are necessary in the Bios of the motherboard and then do anything the OS needs.

One problem is that based on settings and hardware, a WOL may bring the PC up into a state that is not fully operational. It is a complicated subject. In addition WOL may not work at all depending on how the PC was shutdown.

Sorry, but there is no easy path to WOL. I suggest you search the WEB for some WOL utilities that will issue the WOL from another PC and make sure your HTPC comes up fully operational.

archbid,
Your problem is that iRule is unable to connect to one of your gateways. It keeps trying for about 15 seconds and then gives up.

That is helpful. But I am a bit confused. I only have two gateways: Denon AVR3311ci and iTach IP2IR. Both are connecting, as I am sending commands that the systems are responding to. But the gateway connecting period is still quite long (on the order of 30+ seconds).

You will need to capture the commands as raw hex codes so you can import them into the iRule editor. This may work directly or you may need a conversion utility for that. Please note that I never had to do this conversion part. I simply used the iTach learner for the few commands I could not find codes in the iRule database or device manuals.

I am using RS232 control codes for the 3311ci, and they are working fine, but they are all discrete. In some cases, I actually want toggles. Anyone know how to do a Denon power toggle through the IP control?

hi guys. first time setting up a directv box and have a question. we are just going IR with them. which database codes are my best choice. there are so many to pick from. trying to save some guessing work here for when i get to the house to be quick.

the boxes are:

1. H24-100
2. HR20-100S
3. H21-200

also if I end up using the same device for each of the boxes cause the codes will work with multiple boxes I need to import the device multiple time correct? the one device can't be associated with more than one box correct?

thanks again,

thanks alot all!

jimi

Really need some help.

I tried a whole bunch of the database codes today and couldn't get any to work.

I also tried to learn them with ilearn and had no success. I can't even learn the directv buttons. Nothing happens in irule.

The code looks good. I assume you created a new device and are pasting the code into the HEX code group. Please check after pasting the code into the field that there are no additional characters (including a space) after the 02F8.

Itai,
Any chance you could use a Regex to just strip stuff that doesn't work or raise an alert when hex codes are pasted?

I am using RS232 control codes for the 3311ci, and they are working fine, but they are all discrete. In some cases, I actually want toggles. Anyone know how to do a Denon power toggle through the IP control?

I skimmed through the RS232 manual I have for my 4308 but came up empty. You may be able to find a IR power toggle command, though.

I actually had to go this mixed IR/IP based route because I wanted toggle mute commands for my zones. For some reason those are only available as IR... Now to control my 4308 I have a mix of a handful of IR commands and the rest are all IP based. While not a clean solution it works very well for me.
____
Axel

WOL is an attribute of the network interface card, the Motherboard and the OS. It has nothing to do with any application. You need to properly configure your NIC, make any settings that are necessary in the Bios of the motherboard and then do anything the OS needs.

One problem is that based on settings and hardware, a WOL may bring the PC up into a state that is not fully operational. It is a complicated subject. In addition WOL may not work at all depending on how the PC was shutdown.

Sorry, but there is no easy path to WOL. I suggest you search the WEB for some WOL utilities that will issue the WOL from another PC and make sure your HTPC comes up fully operational.

Barry: Thanks for your comments but it was just a glitch in iRules. I had to delete the gateway and reconfigure it and all is OK now. Both WOL and MCE work as expected.

I am seeing intermittent issues with the gateway configuration in iRules. The settings don't always stick. Sometimes I need to restore the gw to get the settings back and sometimes between sessions they change (ie items dissappear).

You can use either the XBMC internal EventServer with a device in the database called XBMC (light), or you can use MCE Controller. I have tried both and have found I can do anything I want with MCE, plus MCE can wake the computer and can start XBMC.

You could use both, but since it takes a moment to connect to either, I am now only using MCE. I did need to modify the device and the command file. I'll be glad to publish either if anyone wants.

I have all the code to control XBMC (Dharma) with its Http interface or its JSON interface. I just haven't gotten around to converting it from the Pronto PRO to the iRule system. Should not be a problem. Its just strings of data that you send over the xbmc http port. The JSON interface while it will be better eventually is missing a lot of basic things (like sendkey) that the http interface has for basic control. Turns out you need very little in the way of two way feedback with xbmc; it was designed to put the stuff on the screen. I am doing all of the control through TCP directly to XBMC with nothing in the middle. I am using XBMC live running on ubuntu as the underlying OS.

Right now I am a little busy converting all my movies to MKV files (Automated process) and plan to look at the XBMC issue and finish my theater control system in iRule next week.

Barry, I sent the Yamaha protocol documents to you a week ago when you first asked. It's a real pity that email seems to be getting less and less reliable these days, with spam filters and sometimes even entire domains being blacklisted. Maybe it got marked as spam, but I see that the file is not too big to post here so I've attached it.

It describes the new TCP and RS-232 protocol for the x67 and RX-A series Yamaha receivers. Last year's x65 models (and the older RX-Z7 and RX-V3900) used a more complex protocol via HTTP commands, and the new one is definitely easier to use (although I think the previous one is still supported too). This is the first time Yamaha have used the exact same commands for both network or serial control, and the network commands are now just strings sent to a TCP port. The documentation is quite well organized, just open the index.html file and everything is linked from there. There's also an extra folder with IR codes.

Sorry if this has been asked... Is these some easy way (or tutorial) outlining how to get these Yamaha codes into iBuilder?

I have all the code to control XBMC (Dharma) with its Http interface or its JSON interface. I just haven't gotten around to converting it from the Pronto PRO to the iRule system. Should not be a problem. Its just strings of data that you send over the xbmc http port. The JSON interface while it will be better eventually is missing a lot of basic things (like sendkey) that the http interface has for basic control. Turns out you need very little in the way of two way feedback with xbmc; it was designed to put the stuff on the screen. I am doing all of the control through TCP directly to XBMC with nothing in the middle. I am using XBMC live running on ubuntu as the underlying OS.

Right now I am a little busy converting all my movies to MKV files (Automated process) and plan to look at the XBMC issue and finish my theater control system in iRule next week.

Took me 2 weeks to convert everything to MKV when I went to plex 9. Time consuming but I can stream 720p anywhere in the house to the iPad and load times are super fast. Well worth the work. Now if I can just get full control with metadata displayed I will be a happy camper.